P.E.I. workers have for years had the lowest pay in the country, and the construction industry is one of the larger contributors to that low-pay problem.

According to Statistics Canada, construction is the fifth-largest employment sector on the Island, with about 8.5 per cent of the province’s jobs in that industry. It is also, when compared to the national average, the worst paid among those top five. Weekly earnings for workers were 32 per cent below the national average in 2021.

That’s twice the difference for all industries combined, which is 16 per cent.

Sam Sanderson, general manager of the Construction Association of P.E.I., said that is changing.

“We’re seeing some huge increases on our end with the jobs that we’re posting,” said Sanderson.

“In order to attract that new talent, employers are really starting to realize that they need to up the salary, not only the salary but the benefits and that as well.”

Those increases have been driven by a high demand for workers, with an estimated 1,000 vacancies in construction.

There has been some ground made up by the industry in the last two years.

While overall pay for Islanders slipped back slightly from 2019, in construction it rose 12 per cent on P.E.I. compared to 7.8 per cent nationally.

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